Heavy rains lash Andhra Pradesh, six killed

Hyderabad: Heavy rains continued to batter three districts of Andhra Pradesh, killing at least six people, damaging crops in over thousands of acres and paralysing vehicular transport, officials said yesterday.

Chittoor, Nellore and Kadapa districts bordering Tamil Nadu received heavy rains for the second day yesterday, inundating dozens of villages and disrupting road and rail transport. The rains, under the impact of low pressure in the Bay of Bengal, resulted in large-scale damage to crops, besides wreaking havoc in Tamil Nadu.

Officials said 14,000 people were shifted to relief camps in Nellore and Chittoor districts. Flash floods also claimed the lives of 80 cattle and damaged 80 houses. For the second day, all educational institutions in Chittoor district remained closed.

Rivers, rivulets, tanks and streams in the affected districts overflowed. In Nellore district, 40 villages were marooned. Officials said at least 100 tanks have been breached. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded as national and state highways passing through the districts were damaged.

The Indian Railways cancelled several trains between Nellore, Tirupati and Chennai as tracks were submerged at a few places. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel rescued passengers from a bus and a car in Nellore district.

Six NDRF teams were pressed into service to rescue people caught in flood waters in the district. Two helicopters flying from Chennai dropped food packets in the marooned villages.